The Easiest (and Safest!) Way to Organize Your Fridge

Caroline Tien
·8 min read

Pixel-Shot/Adobe Stock

If you spend any time scrolling TikTok, you’ve probably come across fridgescaping, a trend that involves making your once-boring appliance as aesthetically pleasing as possible by arranging your food products just so. Think perfectly stacked containers, woven baskets filled with fresh produce, a small army of artfully placed mason jars, or all three. But as it turns out, how you organize your fridge can affect more than its visual appeal—it can have actual repercussions for food safety (and, thus, your health).

Below, we’ve rounded up expert-backed tips and tricks that’ll help protect your food from disease-causing bugs and keep it fresh for longer. (All without sacrificing convenience, promise!) Sure, the result might not be quite as beautiful as what you see on TikTok, but it’ll do a hell of a lot more to keep your stomach safe—and save you from having to shell out the cash to replace yet another bag of wilted salad greens.

1. Don’t fill your fridge to the brim, for starters…

A stuffed-to-the-gills refrigerator is a strained one, and overtaxed and over-crowded machines are more likely to fail, Darin Detwiler, PhD, a food safety expert and associate teaching professor at Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies, tells SELF. Not only does this put the fridge itself at risk, it endangers the food inside too—even if your appliance doesn’t necessarily go on the blink and shut off power to the essentials inside. When everything’s shoved in close, “you don’t get good air circulation in there,” potentially raising the temperature beyond the safe maximum limit of 40 degrees Fahrenheit, Martin Bucknavage, MS, a senior food safety extension associate at Pennsylvania State University, tells SELF.

So tempting as it might be to take advantage of that incredible sale at the supermarket, buying perishables in bulk is actually “not good in terms of food safety,” Dr. Detwiler says. “You should be really thinking about shopping just for one week at a time.” Sure, you might have to make more frequent trips to the store, but it’s probably worth it if you can save your fridge from burning out.

2. …and on that note, declutter regularly.

Another reason to limit the amount of food in your fridge? “You don’t want things disappearing into the deep, dark void of the mystery back area of the refrigerator,” Dr. Detwiler says. “Things get lost, and it makes cleaning so much more difficult,” Bucknavage adds. “So you want to make sure that you’re managing that inventory.” Check your fridge regularly to make sure it’s not harboring any old, expired, or questionable products—and if you find any, purge them. Here’s a handy USDA chart outlining the maximum storage times for different types of food. For example, cooked leftovers can be refrigerated for four days, max, while raw meat and poultry should be limited to half that.

If doing a continual clear-out sounds like a slog, consider taking a page out of Dr. Detwiler’s book and writing the expiration date in big, bold letters somewhere on the packaging to act as a memory aid. “The top of the lid, that’s the most ideal place,” he says.

3. Store priority foods somewhere highly visible.

When it comes to the order in which you eat refrigerated food, a few basic rules apply: First in, first out (a.k.a. FIFO); fresh before frozen; and older before newer. To help jog your memory, store ASAP items like fish, leftovers, and deli meats in a prominent location in the fridge to make sure “you’re using those items up” sooner rather than later, Bucknavage says—for instance, at the front of the shelves. This way, you’ll be able to keep to an efficient eating schedule that prevents you from wasting not only food, but also money. Take it from us, trashing a bag of produce that you barely even opened is a heartbreaking experience.

However, life happens, plans change, and it can be tough to anticipate those shifts in advance. If those ASAP items have been hanging out in your fridge longer than expected (or are going to be), cook them or transfer them to the freezer. Otherwise, there’s a strong chance they’ll deteriorate past the point of no return. And don’t wait too long to take action: “Freeze them before they get to the point where they’re bad,” Bucknavage says. “Then at least you have a chance to use them later on.”

4. Store raw meat, seafood, and poultry on the bottom shelf in sealed containers.

Since raw items can contain harmful bacteria that can make you sick, placing them on the bottom shelf will ensure none of their potentially bug-containing liquids will drip onto foods below. You’ll also want an extra layer of protection for raw items—say, by popping them in a sealed plastic container or a bag to catch any leaking juices. “Or at least on some kind of a plate with a bit of a lip to it,” Dr. Detwiler says. Even if your container does spring a leak, that barrier will prevent those juices from reaching any other items, Bucknavage says.

5. Place ready-to-eat foods on the top shelf.

Think salad, fruit, drinks, leftovers, precooked meat products—anything that you can pop in your mouth straightaway, no cooking necessary. It’s the inverse of the meat situation: Since ready-to-eat (RTE) foods don't require any further cooking, “they’re the least likely to cause cross-contamination, and they’re safe to keep above other items,” Dr. Detwiler says. You want to keep them “protected from anything that’s not RTE, especially [raw] meat and turkey,” Bucknavage says.

6. Portion out big batches of hot food.

You don’t want to stick a huge pot of steaming, fresh-off-the-stove soup, stew, or chili into the fridge, because it runs the risk of heating up surrounding items, according to Bucknavage—and maybe even the overall temperature of the fridge. (Besides, that soup, stew, or chili will itself take longer to cool, which could allow harmful bacteria to flourish.) Instead, Bucknavage suggests letting it cool slightly so it’s easier to handle—say, down to 140 degrees Fahrenheit from its peak temp. Then, transfer the contents into small shallow containers—about the height of a credit card, Donald Schaffner, PhD, chair of the Rutgers University Department of Food Science, previously told SELF. These will “maximize the heat transfer surface area” to accelerate cooling, Dr. Detwiler says.

7. Milk and eggs don’t belong on the door.

Nope, not even if they fit there perfectly, according to Dr. Detwiler. Since the door of the fridge is continually exposed to temperature fluctuations (every time you open it, to be exact), anything located there is at increased risk for all the potential problems associated with those temp spikes—namely, rapid bacterial growth and a reduced shelf life. Instead, stash your dairy products and packaged items on the middle shelves, Dr. Detwiler says.

You still can utilize that door space, though. Sub in preservative-packed items like condiments, dressings, and canned drinks, which shouldn’t be as affected by those temp changes.

8. Keep your produce separate.

Try not to lump your fruits and veggies together if you can help it. Some—like apples, avocados, bananas, tomatoes, and peaches—actually exude a gas that can accelerate ripening and decay. Others, in turn, are especially sensitive to that gas, especially vegetables (peppers, cucumbers, and leafy greens, for example). To keep these two categories apart, try dividing them between the two crisper drawers. “Fruits should go in the fruit drawer, vegetables go in the vegetable drawer,” Bucknavage says. The veggie drawer should be kept closed to maintain moisture, while the fruit drawer should have airflow to ensure the gas doesn’t build up inside, he says.

In addition to keeping fruits and veggies apart, Dr. Detwiler also suggests putting them in breathable bags—say, mesh ones—to maintain freshness and avoid any kind of mold growth. (Sorry but no, those white plastic bags from the supermarket don’t count.)

9. And make sure it even needs to be in the fridge at all.

Some fresh fruits and veggies actually do fine (or even thrive) at room temperature, so refrigerating them isn’t even necessary. Not sure about a specific type? You can find more info in this handy fruit and vegetable storage guide. For example, bananas, mangoes, melons, papayas, tomatoes, and winter squashes should all be stored at room temp. Depending on how much fruit you keep on hand at any one time, this tip could actually help free up a bunch of space in your fridge—which, as we previously mentioned, is another best practice that can help keep you safe.

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Originally Appeared on Self